Horn Family's Unexpected Medical Funding

Dearest family, friends and kind-hearted fellows,

We're organizing this GoFundMe for our dearest friend and colleague, John Horn, and his family to help with non-covered medical expenses, therapy, workshops and day-to-day needs. Their adult children, Adrienne and Aaron, endured some tragic life-changing accidents in the past 4 years. As with any accident, recovery is tough for all parties involved.

Please consider helping this amazing family. Any contribution is greatly appreciated and will go directly to them. Keep reading to hear more about their story.

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Our daughter Adrienne was 26 years old, having just passed her master’s degree in Politics and International Studies, Cum Laude, when she sustained a catastrophic spinal cord injury from a diving accident in February 2019. She fractured C 5,6, & 7, resulting in quadriplegia. She was injured whilst on holiday and spent 3 months in a Cape Town Hospital and Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Unit. She had serious complications from the near-drowning and from the prolonged ICU stay and there were many times that her life hung in the balance.

She returned home in July 2019 and I realized very early on that she needed my constant care and support. I gave up my position as Care Centre Manager for Auria Health Retirement Facility in Bryanston, Johannesburg. Caring for an adult child with quadriplegia is immensely difficult. It is not just the physical aspect but also the psychological effect of the trauma and the negotiating of a whole new life and future. This cruel injury affects and alters everyone’s lives in the family. My son Aaron, 3 years younger than Adie, helped enormously in the care of his sister, especially with any lifting and transfers and also assisting in taking Adie to all her therapies that she attended in the first 2 years, post-injury. The first 2 years were tortuous as Adie struggled through the shock and the loss of her hopes and dreams. She started to paint at this stage, using her non-dominant hand. We have been overjoyed watching this cathartic outlet blossom into a unique style and extraordinary talent. In June 2021, I started to work again, part-time. Aaron was finishing his degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and would stay with Adie in the afternoon until I got home. Things were looking up…

On 12 July 2021, 2 days after writing his final exam toward completing his degree, Aaron was driving home and was hit head-on by a speeding truck that decided to overtake another car on a single-lane road. Aaron sustained very severe skull and brain injuries and was air-lifted to Mill Park Hospital, a renowned Trauma Hospital in Johannesburg. This occurred at the height of the Covid pandemic and we were not allowed to see him for 1 week! His injuries were severe, and part of his skull was removed to relieve the pressure on the brain. He was ventilated for over 6 weeks and went to the theatre 7 times for numerous fractures and reconstructive surgeries. He slowly regained consciousness but could not speak or recognize his family. The damage to his right eye has resulted in 90% loss of vision and irreversible optic nerve damage. A special skull prosthesis was ordered from the U.S. and after 5 months in the hospital, we were able to bring him home. Aaron was incredibly frail and needed intense nursing care. He could not even roll over in bed. He could not walk, toilet himself, feed himself and could only speak in short breathy bursts. We insisted on the therapists treating Aaron at home and he improved rapidly with all the loving care and encouragement he received from his family, friends and therapists.

Aaron is now 2 years post-accident. He walks slowly and carefully, talks non-stop, and can care for himself with supervision and some help but struggles terribly with his short-term memory. He is medicated for epilepsy now as he has had 2 grand mal seizures since returning home. He has undergone 2 years of intensive therapy. The brain injury is severe, but we see a slow and steady improvement. Aaron needs constant supervision and company. Adie keeps her brother busy with word searches, puzzles, art and his favorite sing-a-longs!

Caring for them both is a 24hr job with no days off. Our medical aid will only pay a small portion of the cost of Adie’s new wheelchair and they will not cover therapies for her anymore. She would benefit greatly from the occasional Physio/Biokinetic session to relieve pain and stiffness in her upper body. There is also better and more modern equipment available for her but this is unaffordable for us at present. We are planning to send Aaron to a protective day workshop in the Spring. This will be very stimulating for him and we are sure he will make new friends and find new interests. We have found that after the initial shock of a severe injury, friends slowly fall away, and both my children have very few visitors coming around anymore.

I have no idea how we have survived this and remain reasonably sane. As a parent, you have no other choice but to keep going. The loss on so many levels has been brutal and is only bearable in small increments, I have found. We are more appreciative of life and the smallest joys in a day as we have experienced how utterly life can be decimated, in a moment. We have faced hopelessness and constant fear and have moved through that to live each day quietly, purposefully, and authentically and I think, we have found a measure of peace.

-Leanne Horn